Post by Kestrel on Apr 27, 2021 10:17:08 GMT
I initially got into the 4DA range very recently, primarily for more of Beevers' Master. And sufficient time has passed in-between making my purchases during the last sale, and listening, that I forgot picking up anything else.
So I went into this story expecting the Master. And for a brief, beautiful moment I was teased by the possibility of that most achingly beautiful, impossible story: one with both Beevers and David Warner.
But, obviously, so pure and noble and perfect a thing could not be tolerated to exist in this world.
....
Okay, okay. Seriously, though, this is very thoroughly a David Warner story, and it's pretty fantastic. I don't think I've ever seen Warner deliver a performance like this--he's still the villain, true, but he comes across as both very full of himself and very fallible--far from the dignified mastermind villains Warner more usually plays. And the humor of Warner's Cuthbert worked very well for me--though I can't help but feel HDD be better paired with a more unusual companion, like Leela, than Romana.
Which i totally promise has not one thing to do with my incredibly high regard for Loise Jameson!
As you might guess, I haven't listened to Cuthbert's prior story (or stories?) but it's really cool think of him as a recurring villain. He works very well with Tom Baker's version of the Doctor--reminding me, somewhat, of some of the more overblown and smugly self-satisfied villains the 4th Doctor would encounter in the TV show.
And you just kinda gotta love a guy who'd hire daleks as mercenaries. Though why the Daleks would even be in that line of work to begin with is, perhaps, a question to be answered in the concluding story.
So I went into this story expecting the Master. And for a brief, beautiful moment I was teased by the possibility of that most achingly beautiful, impossible story: one with both Beevers and David Warner.
But, obviously, so pure and noble and perfect a thing could not be tolerated to exist in this world.
....
Okay, okay. Seriously, though, this is very thoroughly a David Warner story, and it's pretty fantastic. I don't think I've ever seen Warner deliver a performance like this--he's still the villain, true, but he comes across as both very full of himself and very fallible--far from the dignified mastermind villains Warner more usually plays. And the humor of Warner's Cuthbert worked very well for me--though I can't help but feel HDD be better paired with a more unusual companion, like Leela, than Romana.
Which i totally promise has not one thing to do with my incredibly high regard for Loise Jameson!
As you might guess, I haven't listened to Cuthbert's prior story (or stories?) but it's really cool think of him as a recurring villain. He works very well with Tom Baker's version of the Doctor--reminding me, somewhat, of some of the more overblown and smugly self-satisfied villains the 4th Doctor would encounter in the TV show.
And you just kinda gotta love a guy who'd hire daleks as mercenaries. Though why the Daleks would even be in that line of work to begin with is, perhaps, a question to be answered in the concluding story.